The latest: Over the weekend, the Republican presidential candidate compared California to a failing European nation. And this was during a trip to ... Beverly Hills and San Diego to beg rich people for campaign cash:

At the Grand Del Mar Hotel in San Diego's Carmel Valley on Saturday he said Obama's economic policies were making the rest of the United States more like the place where he was hanging out with his hand out:

It's a pathway to become like Europe. And Europe doesn't work there. It's never going to work here.

It's even possible we could be on a pathway to become California. I don't want that to happen either.

mittromney.com

It's more than a little ironic. Not only was Romney here to collect funds from the very wealthy people of the Golden State coast, but he has beachfront property not from where he made that pronouncement.

On top of all that, if the rest of the United States became more like California, it might not be such a bad thing. We noted last year that ...

We're also home to the world's most valuable company, Apple, and its Silicon Valley neighbors, not to mention Hollywood and the still hearty import industries that suck billions of dollars worth of goods through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Gil Duran, spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown, had fun with this one, noting that California has seen a a 2.3 percent rise in job growth versus 1.4 percent for the rest of America. He tweeted:

@ccadelago It usually doesn't take much more than a simple fact check to put Gov. Romney off balance. Same is true here.